Hi all, Glad to have found this forum and hope you all don't mind me asking such drawn out question.
First let me give you some background. I have a home built in '64 who's waste is currently handled with a septic tank. Don't know the size. Before I purchased the home the previous owner had not pumped out the tank in many years so that was done as part of my contract, just slightly over two years ago. Only two of us in the house and we don't use huge amounts of water. I know in a normal situation the tank should be pumped approximately on a 2-3 year schedule but that should not be causing the problems I'm having. The leach field is actually a community leach field. Effluent from my septic tank overflows into the sump pit and I have a pump that moves effluent from the sump pit to the leach field. Here is my problem: I am ever so close to being hooked to brand new sanitary sewers that are being installed as part of a NID. I'm very happy about that, however, I have begun to have some back-ups and I don't know if they are related to the digging in the neighborhood (ie. damaging the community leach field further), a glogged vent, a broken effluent sump pump, or a tank that needs to be pumped. What is happening is that I'm getting septic back-up out of the basement floor drain in my basement everytime more than a few gallons of water enters a drain, like when doing even a super small load of laundry. Water is draining but vey very slowly. I started out thinking it was a vent problem because the nearby toilet would gurgle right before a back-up from the drain but have since thought that perhaps the gurgling is the result of water being pushed back into the house drain system because it can't get into the septic tank. No effluent back up into the toilet though and it appears to flush normally but does raise the level of water in the floor drain. I am hesitant to put a hose in my vent pipe to check it for glogsbecause I may find all that water backing up into the basement. I am within a month or two of being hooked to the new sewers so I want to spend as little money to investigate and/or fix the problem as possible. My options at this point are to have the septic tank pumped to see if that solves it. Do all my laundry at a lundromat, take really short showers, eat out all the time, etc.. ;( and wait to be hooked to the new sewers. Have a plumber come out to check that the effluent pump is working properly and if it isn't, replacing it. Or flushing the vent pipe at the risk of flooding my basement. My question to you is which would you think was the most logical problem, and which solution would you try first?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
First let me give you some background. I have a home built in '64 who's waste is currently handled with a septic tank. Don't know the size. Before I purchased the home the previous owner had not pumped out the tank in many years so that was done as part of my contract, just slightly over two years ago. Only two of us in the house and we don't use huge amounts of water. I know in a normal situation the tank should be pumped approximately on a 2-3 year schedule but that should not be causing the problems I'm having. The leach field is actually a community leach field. Effluent from my septic tank overflows into the sump pit and I have a pump that moves effluent from the sump pit to the leach field. Here is my problem: I am ever so close to being hooked to brand new sanitary sewers that are being installed as part of a NID. I'm very happy about that, however, I have begun to have some back-ups and I don't know if they are related to the digging in the neighborhood (ie. damaging the community leach field further), a glogged vent, a broken effluent sump pump, or a tank that needs to be pumped. What is happening is that I'm getting septic back-up out of the basement floor drain in my basement everytime more than a few gallons of water enters a drain, like when doing even a super small load of laundry. Water is draining but vey very slowly. I started out thinking it was a vent problem because the nearby toilet would gurgle right before a back-up from the drain but have since thought that perhaps the gurgling is the result of water being pushed back into the house drain system because it can't get into the septic tank. No effluent back up into the toilet though and it appears to flush normally but does raise the level of water in the floor drain. I am hesitant to put a hose in my vent pipe to check it for glogsbecause I may find all that water backing up into the basement. I am within a month or two of being hooked to the new sewers so I want to spend as little money to investigate and/or fix the problem as possible. My options at this point are to have the septic tank pumped to see if that solves it. Do all my laundry at a lundromat, take really short showers, eat out all the time, etc.. ;( and wait to be hooked to the new sewers. Have a plumber come out to check that the effluent pump is working properly and if it isn't, replacing it. Or flushing the vent pipe at the risk of flooding my basement. My question to you is which would you think was the most logical problem, and which solution would you try first?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.